Just to add some observations that support yours.
I started 12 years ago with a 2m yagi supported on 15-foot mast in
the yard with 45-foot forest surrounding my property. Working 2m SSB
stations 60-70 miles away was a hit and miss, sometimes event
(running 150w). I built a 40-foot tower and mounted two 10-element
yagis made from parts of a Cushcraft 20T satellite antenna and signal
came up 3 s-units. Then I put up my antennas ten feet higher and
gained another 15-dB. Of course the antennas were then above the tree line.
On the other hand, my father wanted a low impact TV antenna at his
home in Michigan, so I suggested putting it up in the rafters of his
ranch-style single story home. I had just spent a summer in bush
Alaska putting up TV translator systems with antennas mounted inside
plywood shelters (on hill tops). My dad's antenna was set up in the
rafters of the garage. It did better than I would have expected
getting a good signal on VHF and UHF from TV stations 35-50 miles
away. 19-years later the antenna is still there working. They do
have Direct-TV dish so have more choices, now.
Point is there is more than one way to make things work...if you
understand the principles and limitations. Short coax and hand-held
antennas work pretty well, but not very convenient in some
weather. Longer coax runs and permanent antenna need a preamp to
work best. Getting the antenna clear of obstructions always is
helpful, but if you are satisfied with working only at higher
elevation angles then simple low antennas still work.
A full az-el CP yagi with preamp and auto-tracking is superb. A
simple short yagi fixed at 15 to 30 degrees and rotated in azimuth
only works too. Can you guess how well my L-band uplink will work
with a 16-foot dish and 300w? He he, well only for Oscar-zero.
73, Ed - KL7UW
Post by n***@bellsouth.netHey Bill,
Your comments about construction, location, etc., are right one,
based on my experiences here. I actually move from one side of the
house to the other depending on whether passes are to my east or west.
A couple of other things affect the performance I'm getting, too.
One of the most important is that my decision to continue using a
handheld antenna means I have less than six feet of coax from the
radio to the antenna. I'm still getting some loss, but not nearly as
much as I'd get by putting antennas in the attic and running much
longer feed lines to them. Another is a little trick K4DLG in
Florida passed along to me a while back.
He has a log periodic for HF, and the coax runs from the antenna
feedpoint along the main boom to the back of the antenna before
heading down to the shack. Taking that lead, he did the same thing
with the Elk he bought. Doing so mitigated any significant changes
in SWR due to moving the antenna around while hand-holding it during
a pass. I tried it here and have observed the same thing. For me, at
this location (inside or out), 8 degrees of elevation was the best I
could hope for with the Arrow I had. In all the months I used that
antenna, I made only a few contacts when a given satellite was below
8 degrees here. When I started using the Elk, that "bottom line"
immediately dropped to 4 degrees. And when I tried K4DLG's
suggestion of running the feedline parallel to the boom, the 4
degrees dropped to 3.
And, as you point out, depending on the location and relative path
of a given pass, I can work even lower and make contacts, as I have
with some stations in Europe on AO-7.
All of that being said, I also still lose the satellites due to
obstruction, as you have observed with your Arrow. When it comes to
the FM LEO satellites, only the ISS transmits back to us using more
than milliwatt power levels. I know that AO-51 is capable of 1 watt
or more, but it generally is not configured to transmit at those
levels. Drew or someone, please correct me if that statement is
inaccurate. The published stats on AO-27 report a nominal output of
500 mW, and SO-50 is reported to operate with a nominal 250 mW
output. I believe both of them also use quarter-wave vertical
antennas, which are 0-gain.
Given those power levels, it doesn't take much to begin affecting
reception, especially for handheld stations.